MyData Global has submitted A Human-Centric Roadmap for Europe to the European Commission’s public consultation on Data Union Strategy. The Roadmap has incorporated input from the MyData community, and the draft was first presented to the EC in a closed roundtable in February.
The Roadmap describes how a human-centric approach to data policy and services can promote European innovation and competition, while enhancing digital sovereignty and upholding European values. It provides a set of recommendations and concrete actions for pursuing this through the European Data Union Strategy.
Moving beyond principles, this Roadmap outlines how regulatory clarity and administrative incentives can support ecosystems that give European citizens and consumers meaningful control over their data, creating economic value, enhancing trust, and reducing regulatory burdens, particularly for SMEs and ethical innovators.
The Roadmap presents five key recommendations:
A. Create market incentives for human-centric services by introducing procurement, tax, and compliance advantages for organisations adopting ethical, user-centric data practices.
B. Set the next stage of AI development on a foundation of trust by embedding human agency and data sovereignty across the AI value chain, including support for fiduciary AI agents and public engagement mechanisms.
C. Emphasise European values in the upcoming Digital Package by simplifying regulatory pathways for companies meeting human-centric standards and designing cross-sector data rights frameworks to harmonise compliance.
D. Complement cloud investments with edge sovereignty by advancing hybrid infrastructures that combine cloud and sovereign edge solutions, ensuring individuals retain control over their data while enhancing resilience and reducing reliance on non-EU providers.
E. Reassert European leadership through values-based partnerships by embedding human-centric data safeguards into international agreements, developing mutual recognition mechanisms for trusted intermediaries, and piloting sovereign data hosting arrangements.
Drawing on over a decade of practical experience in the MyData community, the paper shows how a well-defined, operational human-centric approach can turn European values into a competitive advantage, aligning digital innovation, economic growth, and the rights and expectations of European citizens.
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